Apple CEO Apologizes to China for Warranty Policy, Service

Warranty issue make Apple head contrite in soon-to-be biggest market.

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In this March 28, 2012 photo provided by Apple, Inc., Apple CEO Tim Cook, center, visits the iPhone production line at the newly-built manufacturing facility Foxconn Zhengzhou Technology Park, which employs 120,000 people.

Apple's CEO Tim Cook apologized to customers in China on Monday after an investigative report slammed the company for the way it treated its customers.

China's state-run media outlet China Central Television chastised Apple for giving customers a one year warranty on the iPhone when Chinese law requires two years, according to The New York Times. The Communist Party newspaper The People's Daily and other state publications jumped in the fray with a series of articles, including one entitled "Defeat Apple's Incomaprable Arrogance," the Times reported.

The government news broadcasts suggested that Apple does not treat its Chinese customers as equals to, say, iPhone users in Europe or the United States.

Cook apologized for any such cavalier appearances towards China and promised to shore up warranty information and repair policies for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

Apple's Spaceship Headquarters

Apple stock has lost nearly 40 percent of its value since September, when the iPhone 5 was released and also when Cook was forced to apologize for replacing iPhones' Google Map with an Apple product deemed "inferior."

Apple stock is down from $705.07 per share at its peak to $435.03 on Monday. Apple saw a 67 percent growth in sales in China in 2012.